Traffic signal



June 1 1926. Y [1,586,917

L. M. ROUSE TRAFFIC SIGNAL Filed Dec. 19, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Junel 1926. I 1586,91?

| M. Rousr-:

TRAFFIC SIGNAL Filed Dec. 19 325 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented June 1, 1926 LOVELI: M. ROUSE, OF PORTLAND, OREGON.

'rRArrIc SIGNAL.

Application filed December 19, 1925. Serial No. 76,536.

My invention relates to a device specially adapted to be set in a street or roadway where it is exposed to impact from passlng vehicles traveling on the roadway, and which is adapted by means of one or more, preferably a plurality of reflectors mounted in it, to give to the driver of a vehicle approaching it a visible signal.

The signal usually given is a red light which is caused by reflection of light directed against the reflector from the outside of the signaling device.

Reflector signals of the kind just indicated are, broadly speaking, old in the art, but a serious difficulty in their practical employment arises from the fact that their reflectors are at all times liable to breakage by 1m- Eli pact against them of moving vehicles, with the consequent result, that is especially serious in crowded thoroughfares, of impairment or interruption of their functional operation.

It is the object of my invention to obviate the danger of such breakage, by the employment of economical and practical preventive means incorporated in the mechanism of the signaling device. Such invention consists in providing yielding means of support for each individual reflector in the sigrial-shell, whereby each individual reflector may be made, as by impact against its face of any object from without, as for example the wheel of a vehicle, to retreat intothe body of the shell. Thereby, so long as the impacting object continues in contact with it, the reflector-face is protected by the shell,-

but immediately upon separation of the contacting object from the reflector, the latter will return automatically to its normal position and will resume its signaling function.

What constitutes my invention will be hereinafter specified in detail and succinctly defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which my invention is illustrated in present preferred forms of embodiment,

Figure I is a view of one of my signaling devices having a plurality of reflectors, said view being taken from apoint slightly elevated above it so as to show not only the side of the device but also a portion of the crown thereof.

Figure II is a vertical section of the subject matter of Figure I taken diametrically to the circular bottom edge thereof.

Figure III is a plan view of the signalshell as shown in previous figures, inverted,

and showing the several reflectors therein,

all in normal positions, respectively.

Figure IV is a detail vertical sectional View illustrative of means shown in previous figures for efiecting the specified yielding operation of one of the reflector-cases.

Figure V is a similar view of a slight modification of the subject matter of Figure IV.

Figure VI shows in plan view an installation at a street crossing of four separate signal devices, each comprising a single reflector instead of a plurality of reflectors as shown in the preceding figures of the drawmgs.

Figure VII is a view similar to that presented in FigureI but illustrating a signal device having onlya single reflector.

Figure VIII is a bottom plan view of the subject matter'of Figure VII, the interior mechanism being omitted.

Figure IX is a group figure showing the said interior mechanism detached.

Figure X is a longitudinal vertical section of Figure VII.

Figure XI is a view similar to Figure VII of a signal device having instead of one refiector, two reflectors, namely, one at each end thereof. I

Referring to the numerals on the drawings, 1, in the first five figures thereof, indicates a shell, which, on account of its preferably low, squat shape, belongs preferably to that type of signal devices which have become known in the art by the class name Mushroom Traffic Markers, the name being derived doubtless from a certain resemblance the shell bears in its outward appearance to a mushroom.

The shell 1, however, may be of any shape preferred, a modified form being illustrated, for example, in Figure VI. In the form illustrated in the first five figures of the drawings, it; consists, preferably, of a heavy cast iron bowl, the bowl bein in use inverted to till constitute it into a lowrowed dome, and 5 for repairs, adjustments, or attention of any llltl sort; but the handhole and its cover are not regarded as at all essential.

The edge 3 of the bowl rests in use'upon a plane surface, such, for example, as that of a paved roadway, whereto the bowl may be, if desired, secured by any suitable connecting means, superposed weight alone of the bowl, are suflicient, ordinarily, for the purpose indicated.

In a zone substantially midway between the edge 3 and the crown 2,-I provide in the shell 1 preferably a plurality or ring of openings 5, each of which netrates the wall of the shell and is visib e one on each side thereof. Each' of the openings 5 is preferably provided with a hood 6 or like protective ledge, that is incorporated with the casting which forms the shell 1. Each opening 5 is occupied normally by the convex face 7 of a loosely fitting reflector which,

' being already well known in the art to which protected by it belongs, maybe made of any suitable material, as of glass, and by any suitable method or mode of manufacture. Each reflector is preferably protected to a certain extent by its respective hood 6, but is also being yie ldingly mounted in the wall which defines its individually appropriate opening 5 in the shell 1. A simple and therefore preferred means of mounting a reflector comprises a hollow reflector case 9 into which the reflector whose presence is indicated by the face 7 fits, and within which the reflector is, in service, operatively and securely fixed.

Said preferred means also comprises a stirrup-ring 11, having legs 12 on its opposite sides, each of which terminates in an apertured lug 14 the faces of which next adjacent to the inner face of the shell 1 are disposed mainly in substantially the same plane with each other, but are shaped, also, conformably to the curvature of the inner shell-face, as is well shown in Figure IV. The aperture in each lug 14 is penetrated, for example, by a loose-fitting headed screw 15, that may be threaded as illustrated into a properly disposed screw-hole it in the shell 1, or whose hea may be incorporated in the shell casting, if preferred, as shown in Figure V, and having a nut 17 threaded to the end thereof.

Between the head 16 of each screw 15 and the lug 14 penetrated by the screw, is operatively interposed a coiled spring 18, with the effect produced by the pair of such springs appropriated to each stirrup-ring 11 of automatically compelling normal yielding contact between the opposing faces of the lugs 14 and the interior of the shell 1.

Secured to each ring 11, between it and the frame 19 that is provided for each aperture 5 under its hood 6, I provide the hollow reflector-case 9 aforesaid. Each of said cately conical shape,

such as lugs 4, which, by the rovided for 7 made of metal in trunsubstantially as illustrated in the drawing, and its length is such as to fill snugly the normal space between the frame 19 and the ring 11, which, respectively, confine it movably in lace.

Within the interior of the s ell 1 a socketwall 21 is formed in the body of the shell 1 and in that of the hood 6, and is made to conform to the external shape of the reflector-case 9. The socket-wall 21 serves to guide the case 9 in such restricted movement of it as compression of the pair of springs 18 a propriated to it may permit.

Vi ithin the hollow of each reflector-case 9 is firmly mounted a reflector whose preferably convex. face aforesaid is visibly exposed through the outer end of its said case which serves to project it into visible presentation through the individual aperture 5 provided for it.

In the drawings, Figures VI to X, inclusive, I show a modification of my invention in which a singe reflector is provided for each signal shell.

In those figures, 25 indicates an oblong hollow externally curvilinear case or shell, which is preferably provided with a bottom flange 26 that is preferably extended at opposite ends into lugs 27. Each lug is preferably penetrated by a cases 9 is preferably vertically disposed hole 28 for the accommodation of a bolt or pin 29 adapted to secure the shell in firm position upon a pavement.

The front end of the shell 25 is provided with an opening 31 defined by a hood 32 in the shell, corresponding, substantially, to the openings 5 and hoods 6 already specified.

Within the cavity of the shell 25 is mounted a yielding reflector 33, having a convex face 34, corresponding to the face 7. The mechanism for operatively mounting the reflee-tor 33 in the shell 25 may be substantially the same as that illustrated in Figures IV andV; but in the form employed in the modification of my invention under present consideration, I prefer to use a truncately conical metallic reflector case 35, having an annular base flange 36. The case 35, containing the reflector 33 snugly fitted within it, is impelled with its reflector 33 toward the opening 31, by a disc 37 having a coiled spring 38 encircling a projecting stem 39 concentric to it. The stem fits in an aligning notch 40 formed in a stop-piece 41 which extends downwardly within the shell 25 from the roof thereof. The spring 38 is confined between the opposing surfaces of the stopiece 41 and the disc 37 with the effect of 33 in it towards the opening 31 into which the face 34 of the reflector enters with snug but loose fit.

For certain uses, as for instance, at approaches to sharp curves in a road, a double headed signal having a shell 45., as shown in Figure XI, may be serviceable, the shell being substantially a duplication in one of the shells and being equipped at its opposite. ends 46 and 47 with reflectors, each being mounted and operative like the reflector 33.

The operation of my device may be, in view of What has been already specified, briefly described as follows.

The signaling device, including the shell 1 with the parts appurtenant thereto substantially as has been set forth, is installed at a road or street intersection, so that a reflector face 7 looks in the direction of each incoming road or street, section, the device illustrated being adapted for the intersection of two streets or roads. Light from any] source outside of the device, as, for example, at night from the lamps of an oncoming car, strikes the reflecto' face 7, and is, by the reflector of which. the face is a part, thrown back so as to give a visible signal to the approaching car which illuminates it as well as to all others who should receive its signal and to guide theirmovements by it. The effect just described is not new, being common to all signal devices of the same general type. 1

The distinctivefeature of my invention is that which renders it safely dependable in service, by means of protecting it against accidental injury which might tend to impair or destroy its functional efliciency.

To that end the protective presence of the hoods 6 makes contribution; but the chief characteristic of my invention. is in the provision included in it of automatically operative means for permitting and compelling retreat of the reflectors, individually, into the shell 1 against any injury by impact from without, which would be liable, without such provision, to damage any single reflector to such anextent as to interrupt its usefulness in any degree.

If a device having the shell 25 be used instead of one provided with the shell 1, which is contemplated in the foregoing description i of operation, its operation requires no other description than that which has already been given, because four shells 25 are merely substituted, after themanner illustrated in Figure VI for asingle shell 1. The double headed signal shown in Figure XI is, in effect, merely a duplication of the single reflector signal shown in Figures VI to- X, inclusive.

What I claim is: v

1. A traffic signal, consisting of the combination with an inherently fixed shell, of a reflector yieldingly mounted in the hollow of the shell whereby upon impact from without against the face of the reflector, it may retreat intothe shell so as to be protected by the shell from breakage.

2. A trafiic signal, consisting of the combination with a shell of a plurality of reflectors each yieldingly mounted in the hollow of the shell whereby upon impact from without each reflector may retreat into the shell so as to be protected by the shell from breakage. j

3. In a traflic signal, the combination with a shell open on the bottom, and a stop piece projecting from the inside of the shell into the hollow thereof, of a reflector case, a reflector therein, an opening provided in the shell, and means co-operative with the stop piece and the reflector case for yieldingly impelling the latter towards the opening last named for the purpose s ecified.

In testimony whereof, have hereunto set my hand.

LOVELL M. Rouse. 

